STUDENTS TAILOR A PRACTICAL WEB CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND COORDINATION AMONG INTEGRATED PROJECT TEAMS OF INDUSTRY, GOVERNMENT, AND ACADEMIC RESEARCHERS

摘要

To develop a State of Charge Indicator (SOCI), a team of industry, government, and academics was assembled. This team included entrepreneurs who run a small business in Atlanta, an industry participant in Wisconsin, a professor and two graduate students in a joint two-university cooperative teaching program in Idaho Falls, Idaho, a professor and three graduate students in Moscow, Idaho, and a government project officer in Maryland. Originally, the project consisted of just the entrepreneur and the professor in Moscow. Communication by email and telephone was easy and sufficient. Then the project grew and gained students and industry participants. As the project grew, communications soon sorely needed improvement. The document exchange became a blizzard of email attachments that were difficult to keep track of, let along verify who received and read which documents. Written meeting minutes became necessary but lagged considerably. This paper describes a communication strategy that students developed to improve communications for such a diverse, widely scattered group. In the process, the students learned valuable lessons in communication, project management, personal style and preference in performing research work, and management and protection of intellectual property. The strategy was developed as part of three classes offered through the two universities. It became the means by which all concerned with the project kept track of its progress. It served as a means of documentation and archive, eventually being incorporated easily into theses, presentations, and reports. It emphasized the importance of protecting intellectual property in a practical and unforgettable manner.